Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to evaluate the effectiveness of rapid learning difficulties and disabilities assessment and support plan systems in prisons.

There are ongoing evaluations of the assessment tools with work being undertaken to look at the most effective way to assess Learning difficulties and disabilities. In March 2025 a new Prison Education Service (PES) will be launched and this will inform the assessment model post 2025.

Prisoners are encouraged to enrol in educational programmes at induction and we are recruiting Heads of Education, Skills and Work (HoESW) in all public prisons in England. Their primary responsibility will be to oversee the delivery of education at Prison level.

We encourage governors to incentivise education and they are held to account for ensuring the number of prisoners engaged with vocational courses, Maths and English is sufficiently high compared to their overall population. The curriculum plans are revised regularly to ensure there is a robust link between the education on offer and employment opportunities on release.

Neurodiversity managers are being introduced to assist those with Learning Difficulties and Disability (LDD) needs and all education providers have special needs coordinators in place.